Genital tract infection by Neisseria gonorrhoeae gives rise to gonorrhea, which is the second most frequent reportable infectious disease in the US affecting >300,000 individuals per annum, although the real incidence is believed to be at least double that number. The worldwide incidence of gonorrhea is estimated to be >100 million cases per year. Women bear the brunt of the infection, because untreated gonorrhea can ascend into the upper reproductive tract and give rise to pelvic inflammatory disease and tubal scarring, leading to infertility and risk for ectopic pregnancy which can be life-threatening. Yet a large proportion of infected women, variously given as up to 50% or even more, can be asymptomatically infected, thereby increasing the risk of spreading the infection among their sexual contacts. Men by contrast usually become aware of their infection within a few days and are therefore impelled to seek treatment. New-born infants can become infected in the eyes as a result of delivery through an infected birth canal, and this can lead to blindness if left untreated. Untreated gonorrhea is also known to increase the risk for acquiring and transmitting HIV up to 5-fold. Treatment depends upon antibiotics, but N. gonorrhoeae has quickly become resistant to each class of antibiotics used against it, including most recently the fluorquinolones (ciprofloxacin), and the currently recommended antibiotics are cephalosporins. However, resistance to these has begun to emerge, making N. gonorrhoeae multiple-drug-resistant. Despite various efforts, no vaccine against N. gonorrhoeae is currently available. Thus options for treatment and control of the disease are becoming limited. A puzzling but well-known feature of gonorrhea is that recovery from infection does not lead to protective immunity against re-infection, and repeated infections are common.